Two mass drive-thru vaccination sites open this weekend in Central Texas

TX— A race to vaccinate thousands of people across Texas is underway. Two mass drive-thru vaccination sites are open this weekend in Central Texas: one at Circuit of the Americas in Travis County and another at Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex in Williamson County.

Family Hospital Systems is holding its first 24-hour Vax-A-Thon from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday, with a goal to vaccinate 7,000 people.

Thousands of people on the Williamson County waitlist were able to pick a time slot within a 24-hour window for something they’ve been waiting months for, their first COVID-19 vaccine dose.

“It was actually surprisingly really easy. I just drive in, get the shot sitting in my car and that’s it,” said Miranda Van Blarcum.

“This is amazing. I’m an educator and I’ve been waiting because I didn’t fall under the categories. I work with kids every day so I’m excited that I was able today to get it done,” said Taylor Gutierrez.

Family Hospital Systems said operating for 24 hours allows those who can’t make it during regular hours, to still receive their first vaccine dose.

“We knew that we had an awful lot of people that had missed appointments given the winter storm and we had one day where our vaccine shipment hadn’t come in, so in order to knock all those appointments out in one shot, we decided to go ahead and do the 24-hour Vax-A-Thon,” said Jen Stratton, Family Hospital Systems Communications Director.

Hundreds of Family Hospital Systems employees and volunteers rotated shifts throughout the 24-hour period to get people vaccinated.

Over at Circuit of the Americas, county judges from Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell and Hays Counties teamed up for their second mass drive-thru vaccination, only this time they plan to vaccinate 10,000 within a 3-day period.

“The hope is that we can get up and running 7 days a week here at Circuit of the Americas giving out 6,000 to 10,000 Pfizer doses per day,” said Travis County Judge Andy Brown. “The virus is mutating, and we don’t get 80% of the population vaccinated in time, we could have serious problems. Our hope is that we get the Johnson and Johnson vaccine because that’s only one shot and the effectiveness is enough to where if everyone got Johnson and Johnson, we would end the virus.”